Saturday, May 10, 2008

Curly quotes, Iran, Israel, Ahmadinejad & the Media

VIDEO: Curly quotes, Iran, Israel, Ahmadinejad & the MediaPresident Ahmadinejad and several Iranian officials have repeatedly made clear that they are not threatening to attack Israel. Iranian President Ahmadinejad did NOT threaten to use force against Israel. He DIDN'T threaten to attack Israel. It is outrageous and dangerous how 60 Minutes and nearly all of mainstream media continue to misrepresent what he has said.

It is not amazing at all, the pick-and-choose approach of highlighting the misinterpreted remarks of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in October and ignoring this month's remarks by Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, that "We have no problem with the world. We are not a threat whatsoever to the world, and the world knows it. We will never start a war. We have no intention of going to war with any state."

Also, the Islamic Republic of Iran has officially declared its commitment to the fundamental principle of the United Nations Charter, which is to refrain from the threat or use of force against any member of the United Nations. Yet a daily barrage of illegal threats by officials of the Israeli government to resort to force against Iran has continued to date.

Iran's position is very clear: We have not threatened to use force nor have we used force against any country or government in the past 250 years. We've never done that in the past, and we'll never do it in the future.

We wonder whether Israel or the United States can make the same statement.

What is urgent about the situation is getting the U.N. Security Council to act on the daily threats against Iran by the United States and Israel.

M.A. MOHAMMADIPress OfficerIranian Mission to the United NationsNew York